Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Odyssey literary analysis
Character essay on the odyssey
Odyssey literary analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
During Odysseus’ long and strenuous journey to make it back home to Ithaca, he encountered a countless number of dangers. Odysseus started off his voyage with an unwelcomed greeting from the Cyclopes, who swallowed a handful of Odysseus’ shipmates. Nevertheless, Odysseus and the remainder of the surviving shipmates escaped and rowed closer to their home. As the sailors advanced towards Ithaca, they faced the angered sun god Helios, sly sirens that tried to lure them to their deaths, and deadly whirlpools. The desperate men came across powerful winds and crashing waves, but they barely managed to get past it. Coming close to the end of the mens’ treacherous expedition, Zeus shot a bolt directly to their ship, and Odysseus was blown back to the
Odysseus had many horrible experiences throughout his trip but one of the worst is the encounter with the Land of the Lotus Eaters. After him and his men ate the lotus flowers they forgot their mission to get home which made their trip even longer and he lost some of his men. After the Lotus Eaters they encountered the island of the Cyclopes and he lost even more men there fighting off the horrible creature. Once they started sailing the seas for longer periods of time things became worse for Odysseus and his men. He had to fight the urge to eat Helios’s cattle even though all he had was bread and rice. He had to be tied to the post on the boat to fight the urge to fall into Sirens trap, but not all his men were as strong as he was. He had
After the incident with the bag of winds it is reasonable for Odysseus to have trust issues, but when it is a matter of life and death, Odysseus is witless. After being punished by Zeus because some of his crew ate Helios’ cattle Odysseus drifts in the ocean until he lands on Calypso’s island. 7 years pass and Odysseus can finally leave after he crafts a ship, after he leaves and sails for a bit, Poseidon sees it as a time to get revenge for his son Polyphemus. Poseidon completely wrecks Odysseus’ ship when he is close to the land of the Phaeacians. A goddess named Ino sees this and offers Odysseus help.
The recklessness of Odysseus and his crew places them in completely avoidable predicaments that not only lengthens the journey but also results in casualties. At the start of their journey home, they sack a stronghold of the Cicones.
Odysseus departure from Troy is the beginning of his long heroic adventure. "What of those years of rough adventure, weathered under Zeus?"(895) This quote depicts the rough times Odysseus will have on his journey, but also reveals that Zeus will watch over him. "The call to Adventure signifies that destiny has summoned the hero and transferred his spiritual center of gravity from within the pale of his society to a zone unknown∦"(58) Odysseus will cross the threshold and go places no one has returned from before. On the island of the Cyclops Odysseus exhibits his abilities, as he developed a plan to escape the Cyclops' cave. "∦I deemed it would be the best plan to do as follows. The Cyclops had a great club which was lying near one of the sheep pens;∦ I went up to this club and cut off about six feet of it;∦ lastly I brought it to a point myself, charring the end in the fire to make it harder. When I had done this I hid it under dung, which was lying about all over the cave∦"(book IX) Odysseus has this plan and utilizes it. He and most of his men escape the cave unharmed. This symbolized the escape from the "belly of the whale".
The hero soon lands on Aeolus’ island. (Aeolus is the Keeper of the Winds.) He helps Odysseus on his way by giving him the right winds to take him home to Ithaca. The hero gets within site of his home but a hurricane blows him all the way back to Aeolus’ island. This time Aeolus turns Odysseus away, and he is forced to continue his journey. The hero and his men next end up in the Land of the Midnight Sun, where the Laestrygonians live. The Laesrtygonians attack the men and sink eleven of the twelve ships. Only Odysseus’ ship and forty-four men escape to safety. This is one of the most painful tribulations Odysseus faces on his journey.
“Our life’s journey of self-discovery is not a straight-line rise from one level of consciousness to another. Instead, it is a series of steep climbs, and flat plateaus, then further climbs. Even though we all approach the journey from different directions, certain of the journey’s characteristics are common for all of us.” Author Stuart Wilde’s impression of journeys and their shared commonalities supports the claim that all journeys have a motive and an outcome. In the epic poem, The Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus sets off to defeat Troy, leaving his wife and child behind. After accomplishing his goal, Odysseus faces many problems while trying to return him and his crew back home to Ithaca. Similar to Odysseus’s physical journey, the goal in
The Character Odysseus in Odyssey "Odyssey" is an epic story that has been a significant piece of literature since it was first composed and will remain so for ages to come. One of the reasons it has been so is because of the hero, Odysseus. Odysseus was one of the first Greek mythic heroes renowned for his brain as well as his muscles. Indeed he is a man with an inquiring mind, and he is also a man with outstanding prowess and bravery" (123helpme.com/assets/3603.html). "We also must not forget that he is a top-notch athlete which only adds more to this seemingly insuperable character.
In the intricate and complex epic poem, “The Odyssey”, Odysseus’s main goal was to reach his home, Ithaca. Even though all of his thoughts were turned towards his family and home, he learns many lessons along the way. Odysseus's greatest learning experiences were in his journey, not his destination. The quote “the experiences of the voyage itself were more meaningful for Odysseus than his arrival home,” truly depicts that Odysseus’s experiences and confrontations with others throughout the journey contributes to his moral values and life lessons.
Odysseus forgets that he is not in control and disrespects the gods. After sailing away from the cyclops, Polyphemus starts to boast about blinding the cyclops. Poseidon, the god of the sea, punishes him for blinding his son. When Odysseus finds out from Circe that he will lose six of his men to the beast, he refuses to accept the fact. “Must you have battle in your heart forever? / The bloody toil of combat? Old contender / Will you not yield to the immortal gods?” (12.76-79). Circe tells Odysseus he should let the gods take over. Odysseus’ men end up disrespecting the sun god Helios. Odysseus and his crew sail to the god's island. His men end up hunting the sun god’s cattle. Even after Circe warned them to not touch the
What do gods, soldiers, and a one-eyed man all have in common? They are all in the Odyssey by Homer. In the Odyssey, Homer uses Odysseus’s journey to show how one’s journey can define them as a person. This essay will show, whomever may read this, how Odysseus is loyal, witty, and violent.
Poseidon, the god of the sea, is angered by the death of his son, the Cyclops. When Odysseus and his crew stopped off at the Cyclopes island on their way home from war, the cyclops, Polyphemus, begins terrorizing Odysseus’ men. Odysseus blinded him and boasted about the event. He sends storms against Odysseus and tries to wreak his ship in Book 5. While shipwrecked at sea, on a raft – which was aided by Athena – Poseidon sends another storm, washing Odysseus up on shore. Eventually, Odysseus is on another ship gifted to him by the Phaeacians, Poseidon turns the ship to stone and sinks while pulling into the harbor at Scheria. The idea that “a bad storm” can affect a well-trained
In the epic poem, “The Odyssey” by Homer, do you ever wonder if Odysseus would have made it back to Ithaca without the help of the gods, goddesses, and kings? Odysseus’ journey all starts when Helen is kidnapped by Paris of Troy and he and an abundance of other men have to sail to Troy to bring her back which causes the outbreak of the Trojan War. After the war, Odysseus leaves Troy with his mutineers and encounters the master of winds, Aeolus who gives Odysseus a leather bag of wind to ensure them of getting home safely. The men believed the bag had valuable gems in it and when opening it, the winds flew out and the resulting storm drove the ship back the exact way they had came, sadly Ithaca was already in sight. Back where
They are very curios and go to explore but they end up trapped in the cave by a giant boulder that only the Cyclops can move. The Cyclops began to eat the men and Odysseus’ instinct was to, “stab him were the midriff holds the liver”(378), but Odysseus decides against this. He realized, “if I killed him we perished there as well, for we could never move his ponderous doorway slab aside”(378). Odysseus rather than acting on impulse is thinking through his actions and being careful. One wrong move in this situation could cause him and his men their lives. It takes great strength and patience to be cautious and Odysseus finds this strength because of the challenges he is facing. Odysseus and the rest of his men later venture to The Land of the Dead. There they meet Tiresias, an old prophet, who tells Odysseus of his future and his fate. Odysseus is told, “I see destruction for your ship and crew. Though you survive alone...Then a seaborne death soft as this hand of mist will come upon you,”(Homer page#390-391). Odysseus is told that he is to be the only survivor of his crew. Despite this, he does not tell his crew that they are going to die. He doesn’t want to worry them and says, “I told them nothing as they could do nothing,”(396)As their leader he wants to be strong and encouraging. He wants his men to fight until their last minute and die honorably if they must die. Odysseus learns about his
In the epic The Odyssey, the hero Odysseus shows many heroic traits, one of which is perseverance.
Odysseus starts in the ordinary world, his/her home, and then an even takes place in which the hero is being called, in Odysseus’ case he is called into the Trojan War. Odysseus then refused the call because he didn’t want to leave his family, knowing that it could take a long time for him to return home to them. Once Odysseus departed on his adventure, he goes through the next step which is having a supernatural aid or mentor to help him; in this case he receives help from the goddess of wisdom Athena. Knowing the gods would be angry and taking sides during the war, there was no question that there were gods that were going to make sure Odysseus died. Athena however, felt pity for him because she knew the kind of man he was; someone who wanted to be reunited with his loved ones. After the war, Odysseus began the next stage of his journey, crossing the Threshold into a different world. He enters the next stage called The Belly of the Whale after the freak storm conjured up by Poseidon, god of the sea, one of the many gods who were upset with Spartans. His god-like powers created powerful waves and increased winds that would send Odysseus and his crew further away from